AsiaWeb 2008
December 17th, 2007 by Gen KanaiChang-Won Kim calls for an Asia-wide Internet conference in 2008:
An open letter to Asia’s web industry people - What do you think about AsiaWeb 2008?
But I don’t think I’ve seen many “pan-Asian” web conferences so far. So I think we could imagine a conference where things like these are happening…
- Keynote speeches being made by well-known tech entrepreneurs in China, India, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Hongkong, Taiwan, etc. as well as a host of internationally renowned speakers.
- An international launchpad where new ventures in Asia can showcase their newest products (Think TechCrunch 40 or the Demo). English translation will be provided - we all know English-speaking skills and product-development skills are two different sets of skills. VCs are more than welcome to join.
- Panel discussion between professionals from different countries where different web cultures and business environments can be compared, perhaps in search of some universal success strategies across the Asian web industry.
I think language is one hurdle but I think English will end up being the defacto language of such an event. More importantly is location, sponsorship and organization. That will be the challenge. Japan only had a “Web 2.0″ event in 2007 (many years after the first “Web 2.0″ event in the US) and the Japan event was very different than any of the US ones.
I would be happy to see such an event happen and would do what I could to make it happen, but I think finding an appropriate site, an organizer and anchor sponsors is critical (and a full-time job for a team of people.) Even if discussions started today, 2008 may be too early for such an event (if the goal is to make a very large event.) I look forward to such an event but I don’t see any of the current incumbents (event organization incumbents) stepping forward for such an event.